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Someone is blocking garage doors and car keys in my neighborhood

K

krotchy

Golden Member
So as the title says, some asshat appears to be broadcasting a pretty strong signal in the 390Mhz band in my neighborhood (condos, so double hard to locate). It is basically making car keys and garage doors completely useless, as any wireless signal they would pick up is completely getting swamped.

What do you think I can do to locate the person responsible? The HOA has already been alerted Im told, but I doubt they could figure it out properly, and in the mean time, not being able to open my garage without a physical key is just plain annoying.

Also does anyone know what would crank out a 390Mhz signal nonstop to screw up this communication to begin with?
 
Call the FCC. They WILL act.

In order to locate you'll need a spectrum analyzer and from there you can pinpoint exactly where it's coming from and the source of the interference. If it's wide spread and not just you then somebody is stepping on that band.

Without specialized equipment there isn't much you can do yourself.
 
Originally posted by: krotchy
So as the title says, some asshat appears to be broadcasting a pretty strong signal in the 390Mhz band in my neighborhood (condos, so double hard to locate). It is basically making car keys and garage doors completely useless, as any wireless signal they would pick up is completely getting swamped.

What do you think I can do to locate the person responsible? The HOA has already been alerted Im told, but I doubt they could figure it out properly, and in the mean time, not being able to open my garage without a physical key is just plain annoying.

Also does anyone know what would crank out a 390Mhz signal nonstop to screw up this communication to begin with?
Click to expand...

Holy crap! That's the same as me. My car key lock never works outside my house. Ever. Yet works perfectly fine at work or elsewhere in the city. It's a real pain.

I always thought it was the molemen living underground, but your reasoning sounds good too.
 
Originally posted by: StinkyPinky
Originally posted by: krotchy
So as the title says, some asshat appears to be broadcasting a pretty strong signal in the 390Mhz band in my neighborhood (condos, so double hard to locate). It is basically making car keys and garage doors completely useless, as any wireless signal they would pick up is completely getting swamped.

What do you think I can do to locate the person responsible? The HOA has already been alerted Im told, but I doubt they could figure it out properly, and in the mean time, not being able to open my garage without a physical key is just plain annoying.

Also does anyone know what would crank out a 390Mhz signal nonstop to screw up this communication to begin with?
Click to expand...

Holy crap! That's the same as me. My car key lock never works outside my house. Ever. Yet works perfectly fine at work or elsewhere in the city. It's a real pain.

I always thought it was the molemen living underground, but your reasoning sounds good too.
Click to expand...

NO! When you let your guard down is when the molemen make their attack. You must always suspect the molemen.
 
Call the FCC. They could call a hit on you and no one in the government would even know whats going on before they find your body in some ditch in Alaska 4 years later.
 
The FCC already knows. There have been reports of this in Colorado and Nevada. It's military operations, not your neighbor playing a prank.
 
Well if you lived in a FiOS(Verizon) area, i would say that is it. The ONT's (Telllabs) they mount are known to interfere with garage door openers (liftmaster)
 
this happens to me in certain parking lots. I always figured it was the 'special' line frequency that shopping carts aren't allowed to go past, if they do the wheels lock up.
 
Originally posted by: dpert1
call the FCC, they have so much legal power you'll be amazed
Click to expand...

As well they should. See those little stickers on all of your electronics regarding passing FCC classes of devices? I HATE gubment regulation of anything but in this respect it's warranted.

They don't fuck around with people overstepping the power/frequency guidelines. If you don't interfere and there is no complaint - meh. But IF YOU DO, they'll take the complaint very seriously.

Nobody will wind up in jail or hauled off. They will even try to help.
 
The FCC is your best bet. They are usually above the law and government. The FCC will track that person down and give him 50 to life in prison with no trial.
 
Originally posted by: invidia
The FCC is your best bet. They are usually above the law and government. The FCC will track that person down and give him 50 to life in prison with no trial.
Click to expand...

More like a job offer from the DoD.
 
Originally posted by: ric1287
this happens to me in certain parking lots. I always figured it was the 'special' line frequency that shopping carts aren't allowed to go past, if they do the wheels lock up.
Click to expand...

Wow, I never knew there were shopping carts whose wheels would lock up if they moved past a certain point. 😕

It's a good idea though. I remember the grocery store near my college would lose tons of carts that students would just wheel back to their apartments.
 
Originally posted by: jiggahertz
Originally posted by: invidia
The FCC is your best bet. They are usually above the law and government. The FCC will track that person down and give him 50 to life in prison with no trial.
Click to expand...

More like a job offer from the DoD.
Click to expand...

It wouldn't require a great deal of skill to build a circuit capable of what is described in the OP. I doubt that sort of skill merits a job offer from the DoD. 😀
 
Originally posted by: Special K
Originally posted by: ric1287
this happens to me in certain parking lots. I always figured it was the 'special' line frequency that shopping carts aren't allowed to go past, if they do the wheels lock up.
Click to expand...

Wow, I never knew there were shopping carts whose wheels would lock up if they moved past a certain point. 😕

It's a good idea though. I remember the grocery store near my college would lose tons of carts that students would just wheel back to their apartments.
Click to expand...

I went to some warehouse type store in a bad neighborhood that had their carts lockup about 15 ft from the door. It made hauling the stuff to the car kinda interesting.
 
Originally posted by: Special K
Originally posted by: jiggahertz
Originally posted by: invidia
The FCC is your best bet. They are usually above the law and government. The FCC will track that person down and give him 50 to life in prison with no trial.
Click to expand...

More like a job offer from the DoD.
Click to expand...

It wouldn't require a great deal of skill to build a circuit capable of what is describe in the OP. I doubt that sort of skill merits a job offer from the DoD. 😀
Click to expand...

It just takes a signal generator and an antenna to do it locally, but the power required for a neighborhood starts to get pretty high.
 
Originally posted by: jiggahertz
Originally posted by: Special K
Originally posted by: jiggahertz
Originally posted by: invidia
The FCC is your best bet. They are usually above the law and government. The FCC will track that person down and give him 50 to life in prison with no trial.
Click to expand...

More like a job offer from the DoD.
Click to expand...

It wouldn't require a great deal of skill to build a circuit capable of what is describe in the OP. I doubt that sort of skill merits a job offer from the DoD. 😀
Click to expand...

It just takes a signal generator and an antenna to do it locally, but the power required for a neighborhood starts to get pretty high.
Click to expand...

Tubes are your friend. jiggawatts of power.
 
Originally posted by: jiggahertz
Originally posted by: Special K
Originally posted by: jiggahertz
Originally posted by: invidia
The FCC is your best bet. They are usually above the law and government. The FCC will track that person down and give him 50 to life in prison with no trial.
Click to expand...

More like a job offer from the DoD.
Click to expand...

It wouldn't require a great deal of skill to build a circuit capable of what is describe in the OP. I doubt that sort of skill merits a job offer from the DoD. 😀
Click to expand...

It just takes a signal generator and an antenna to do it locally, but the power required for a neighborhood starts to get pretty high.
Click to expand...

Yeah, a simple noise generator ( maybe a reverse biased diode or something - depending on the bandwidth ) + mixer + RF power transistor + antenna + matching networks should do the trick. You could probably do it without a spectrum analyzer / scope / network analyzer / etc. with a ton of time and trial and error.

 
Originally posted by: jiggahertz
The FCC already knows. There have been reports of this in Colorado and Nevada. It's military operations, not your neighbor playing a prank.
Click to expand...

Generally, the military is not exempt from spectrum management. There's been some high value military equipment delayed because they didn't get FCC approval for the portion of spectrum they were using.
 
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